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Tuesday, 8 May 2012

Quite a while back ,Mark Ritson in the December
7th 2011 issue of the magazine 'Marketing Week' headlined a
provocative article on the CIM report marketing and selling Fusion.

It read

“The CIM is mis-selling the concept of marketing”

It reignited an on going kerfuffle of whether selling is part of marketing or as now being postulated by the Chartered Institute of Marketing CIM
that marketing is part of selling. .

To use the “mis selling” expression
rather than the re- alignment word was certainly provocative and extreme.

Usually “mis selling” is reserved to
report the likes of the scandal of
breast implants by PIP using industrial grade silicone, or the Barclays furor over Swaps,or financial advisersoffering
mismatched Payment Protection Insurance or recently Ofgem in its ongoing
investigations into the energy sales practices of Scottish Power, SSE and
npower and EDF Energy on this issue.

Suppliers are required by the various consumer watchdogs to put in place
robust processes to guard against mis selling.

These obligations include
ensuring that any marketing material that suppliers use and information that
they provide during telesales and face-to-face marketing

are fair,

accurate,

easy to understand and

do not relate to products that are
inappropriate for the customer.

In addition, suppliers are required to conduct
any telesales and face-to-face marketing activities in a

fair,

transparent,

appropriate

and professional manner.

Interestingly one tends not to see in the media-
the expression of 'mis-marketing' much, but far more often that of " mis selling."

The
CIM’s Marketing and Sales Fusion report laid out the case for repositioning
marketing and the sales function. Time for some Silo busting perhaps?

﻿﻿

Cement Silos for the Cross Rail Project at London Paddington Rail Station

Key points from the 'Marketing and Sales fusion?' paper:

There has been a trend towards the separation of sales and marketing functions in businesses: this results in unnecessary competition and a detrimental impact on the business overall.

Research demonstrates that companies with closely aligned sales and marketing departments are more competitive and more successful.

A conceptual shift is required at the highest level of UK business. Both sales and marketing functions must abandon their 'silo' mentalities and embrace not just cooperation but union. Big businesses could have much to learn from SMEs, where sales and marketing are often integrated.

Marketing evolved out of sales, and the two disciplines share many fundamental characteristics: reuniting sales and marketing brings benefits across a business.

David Thorp, director of research
and professional development at the CIM, stated:

“For too long the trend has been
towards separating marketing and sales - and the marketing profession, in its
desire to establish itself, undoubtedly contributed to this. We believe that,
in the next decade, more and more companies will see reintegrating marketing
and sales as a smart move that brings real rewards.”

Mark Ritson considered this move
by the CIM as a retrograde step.He is in no way is expressing a
snobby attitude to selling but says that

“most sales departments think they understand marketing. But they
don’t, they think it means sales. And when you approach every strategic
marketing challenge thinking that marketing should deliver immediate sales, you
get many of the key strategic decisions wrong. You under-price the product. You
target everyone. You position to everyone. And eventually sales start to
decline because of the inherent and insistent focus on increasing them.”

On the other hand Ritson said

“Most marketers couldn’t sell a bucket of water to a man whose pants are on
fire, but the idea that blending the two functions into one will somehow synergize
the organisation is utter nonsense.”

I guess the debate of defining marketing and selling will continue for it is not a new one.

Here are some other definitions from 'back in the day' - some serious and some light hearted:-

"Marketing is what salespeople used to do in their lunch breaks"

"Marketing is selling products that won't come back to customers who will"

"Marketing is selling artificial pearls to real swine" jokingly said by Peter Blood years ago former head of the Institute of Marketing ( not so different to the alleged views of some at Goldman Sachs and 'Muppets' ?! as recently reported in the New York Times this year)

“the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit. Marketing identifies unfulfilled needs and desires. It defines, measures and quantifies the size of the identified market and the profit potential. It pinpoints which segments the company is capable of serving best and it designs and promotes the appropriate products and services.”

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About Me

I have been a training consultant for 30 years.
I also research Buyers Views of Sales people for an ongoing research study I have done for the last twelve years
The majority of photographs, videos and audios in this blog are taken on my new Fujifilm Fine pix T from May 2012 The Pencil Sketches are mine also